<p>Recommendation letters are easy to get at a magnet school. The students are helped along the college app process every step of the way by the guidance office. Magnet schools do a good job at packaging their students for college admissions. You’re not as likely to get that kind of attention and guidance at the neighborhood school, especially one that isn’t a strong college prep one.</p>
<p>A high GPA in and of itself is not significant without context. It depends what the student has taken, and what the competition is. The context of the grades is important. Easy As at an undemanding school do not impress admission committees at selective schools.</p>
<p>Any admissions advantage to being an underrepresented minority has nothing to do with going to a “minority” high school. Your daughter can list her ethnicity on her application no matter where she goes. I would not overestimate the benefit either; surely Hispanic status in California is not particularly noteworthy? Instead, encourage your child to define herself by her academic and extracurricular accomplishments.</p>
<p>BTW, I don’t worry much about diversity and heritage. Either way, it is fine. Luckily, we have big extended family. Also she is active in her church youth group; she has lots of friends in the neighborhood. She has friends beside school. </p>
<p>D. really wants to get a chance at a top college.</p>
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<li>Adcoms know their high schools. They know the curriculum and compensate accordingly. Keep in mind that Adcoms have a profile to fulfill for the academic school year. They need a broad cross-section of skills, strengths, talents, racial/ethnic standing, etc. It is very risky to hang your hat on high GPA w/ terrible school reputation. </li>
<li>If your D is not receiving a quality education she will be less prepared to tackle the SAT. Self-study is rare and difficult and stressful for kids. Easier said than done.</li>
<li>Why would you want to put D in a remedial position entering college? It could easily all fall apart once she reaches a college where her peers are nothing like her and she is challenged beyond her preparation.</li>
<li>Administrative services are worse at these types of schools - not better! Think about it. Services need to funded with money.</li>
<li>When she is not involved in self-study for the SAT.</li>
<li>Adcoms don’t actually like sad, sob stories. They prefer uplifting stories about accomplishments, passions, success and want to really understand how each student will help fulfill their profile requirement and contribute to their campus.</li>
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<p>1) People are projecting into the future and are not just worried about college admissions, as you appear to be. They are saying, Let’s say your kid gets into Harvard; what happens when she can’t cut it there because she’s not sufficiently prepared because her HS education has been lacking? The people of cc aren’t just about getting the Golden Ring; they’re about holding on to it and being successful.</p>
<p>2) Many of us, myself included, have had kids in public magnets and know the benefits that come from choosing the rigorous route.</p>
<p>3) I have a homework project for you … Call the minority school and ask where the val and sal for the past five years have attended. Then report back, please. And then call the magnet school and find out where those vals and sals have attended. And then ask where, say, the top 10 have chosen to go. Or maybe where the top 25 kids are going. Then report back again. I would bet my last dollar that the 25th kid at the magnet is going to a school as selective as the sal at the low-performing school.</p>
<p>ETA: I really don’t understand your hesitation to list an accurate ethnic status.</p>
<p>D attended the #1 public high school in the state - ranked top 20 in the nation. Her unweighted gpa was only 3.57 and she was accepted into all top 10/top 20 schools. You will find a thread on CC called “where did your 3.3 - 3.6 GPA child get in”. Check it out. I guarantee they are not talking about the same population of schools that my D was accepted to.</p>
<p>“Easy As at an undemanding school do not impress admission committees at selective schools.”</p>
<p>Is it true, or is it an urban legend? I would be happy, if you are right. It sounds logical to do so. However, I saw many times that logical things are not popular. </p>
<p>It does no good to be admitted to college and then flunk out or need remedial courses once at college. There is a long thread about a student who got A grades in math at a low quality (private!) high school but didn’t realize the problem until taking a math placement test at college and getting placed into precalculus, throwing off his whole schedule as an engineering major.</p>
<p>Admission to highly selective colleges may not be helped by attending a low performing school, since standardized tests exist to expose poor high school course quality (particularly tests like the SAT subject tests and the AP tests, but also the SAT Reasoning and ACT tests to some extent). While UCs do not emphasize test scores as much, a 4.0 GPA with 1500 SAT CR+M+W will still raise eyebrows there.</p>
<p>Also, a low performing gang infested school may give too many unwanted distractions, including lack of a motivated peer group, while increasing the risk of drawing the student into an anti-intellectual peer group that is not going to any college at all. Not to mention that criminal gangs could be a problem in terms of safety and security (including bullying of students who do not fit into the anti-intellectual peer groups).</p>
<p>Um, so why does the last quote help your position? What am I missing?</p>
<p>Lots of perfect scores are rejected due to the holistic approach to admission. They have a profile to fulfilll with a wide range of students. They want students who are interesting - captivating even. Students who have lots to offer. Students with passion and do a great job of articulating their passions.</p>
<p>Many perfect scores do not fit the holistic profile of colleges.</p>
<p>my D. is half-Latina, with platinum blond hair and very fair skin. She hesitates to call herself Latina, outside of her circle of family and friends, because people think that she is an imposter. I hope that she will get over it. :). Or will dye her hair :)</p>
<p>Yes it is true. Adcoms look at the transcript, the classes taken, and the rigor, not just the number on the top. Your D may not even be able to take the high school classes to make her a competitive applicant if she goes to the inferior school. </p>
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<p>All the more reason why you should not encourage your D to attend a crummy high school for the sake of an inflated GPA. What if it’s all for nothing? There’s an excellent chance that your D will not get into Stanford or the like, no matter how wonderful she is. At least if she goes to the magnet she will actually get an education that will serve her well in the future. I really don’t understand your reasoning.</p>
<p>My D. is even more puzzled than I am. Everyone suggests to go to magnet, she signed up for it already, but she can still drop out, if she changes her decision (it is possible).</p>
<p>She looked at the curriculum and at the textbooks for the magnet. No way she will get A+ next year :(</p>
<p>If you and your daughter automatically assume that her GPA will suffer because of a more rigorous program, she probably will. There is nothing to say that your daughter can’t handle a heavy courseload, especially if she “is pretty good and can study independently,” like you say she could. If she’s able to go to a better school, I would encourage her to rise to the occasion. </p>
<p>Consider this: Let’s say your daughter gets into a top Ivy league school, as well as the local state school. Should she go to the local state school, where she will likely be able to get a higher GPA, or should she go to the top school where her GPA may suffer because of a more rigorous workload? Future employers or graduate schools may look at her college GPA, just as undergraduate adcoms are looking at her GPA now.</p>
<p>Also, like others have emphasized, consider how prepared (or unprepared) she may be in college if she gets a poor education in high school. I’ve known a lot of people who were at the top of their class at poor high schools, who did very poorly in college because they just weren’t prepared for it (both friends and students I tutored). It’s very hard to play catch up when the pace of the courses is also much faster, and it will take away from your daughter’s ability to do other things in college (like internships, work experience, research experience, volunteering), which will serve her well when she graduates college.</p>
<p>Getting into Harvard is great, but failing out or graduating at the bottom of your class isn’t going to help her. She may very well work twice as hard and rise to the occasion in college, but why put her in a position where she has to? And what if she goes to the minority school and doesn’t get into Harvard, Yale, or Stanford? What then?</p>
<p>If you are so overly worried about GPA, why not send her to the local public school, which you said had a good curriculum? She will likely get a high GPA and still be prepared for college work.</p>
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<p>I would recommend that she go to a school that has AP and honors classes so that she can prepare for the college environment, but that’s just my personal opinion.</p>
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<p>It’s my understanding that schools with a strong college-prep curriculum and environment provide a lot of support to their students in terms of college applications. I doubt she will struggle to find teachers to write rec letters, especially if the classes are smaller and more involved.</p>
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<p>She may not have as much free time as you suspect if she has to self-study for the SAT/ACT and take online AP classes because her school doesn’t offer them.</p>
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<p>Students at magnet schools can write great essays too (and they will likely receive help or advice in doing so). Choosing to go to a largely minority school so that it will look better on your college applications is not a good essay topic.</p>
<p>Have you spoken to the administration at the magnet school and the minority school to discuss your concerns? Perhaps, you can ask each school where their graduates have gone to school and what supports they have in place to assist with college applications and admissions.</p>
<p>“1. GPA (easier to get good GPA in a minority school)”
Perhaps, but it means less. Colleges are interested in GPA as a metric to see how students can handle college level work. </p>
<p>“2. SAT (I don’t worry much about SAT, my D. is pretty good and she can study independently).”
Your daughter will do better on the SAT if she’s in an environment which expands her vocabulary, helps her critical reading skills and challenges her written work. The magnet school will do that better. And then there’s the peer group effect as well - if her friends are studying for the SAT, she’s more likely to take it seriously. </p>
<p>“3. AP, Honors (if available). However, if AP and Honors are not available at HS, it’s OK.”
Yes, but she effectively does have the opportunity to take AP and Honors by going to the magnet school. Colleges want people to take advantage of the opportunities to do challenging coursework. If your daughter turns down the magnet, she is not taking advantage of opportunities being presented to her. </p>
<p>“4. Recommendation letters (probably, easier to get at the minority school)”
Again, what weight do they hold?</p>
<p>“5. EC (easier to get at the minority school, because D will have more free time).”
Not necessarily true. Many magnet schools have better opportunities. My high school ran countless clubs that actually did stuff - high school students managed government funds and decided which charities would be awarded money, the orchestra traveled to a lot of competitions and students had the opportunity to conduct it… </p>
<p>“6. Assays, personal story (minority school is a plus).”
No, not really. You write about experiences. She’ll be exposed to a lot more challenges if she goes to the magnet school. </p>
<p>Something to keep in mind is that many students admitted to top colleges - especially as cross admits - succeed far beyond the classroom of their individual schools. Many compete in international or national olympiads; many have stellar state or national extracurriculars; many write for journals or newspapers or whatever they can find. If you’re evaluating success solely in the context of the schoolyard, then you’re probably not evaluating it the same way that many colleges do.</p>
<p>I don’t understand you and your daughter. She looks at the magnet high school and the textbooks and then says she won’t get an A+. Well, if she doesn’t think she’ll succeed at a top high school what makes her (and you) think she’ll succeed at a top college?</p>
<p>My son’s friend attended a high ranking rigorous high school through sophomore year. Junior year, his parents moved from the district and he moved in with his aunt (in district) without completing proper paperwork. The school district removed him and assigned him to a lower ranking high school. (1) He never received better grades – he was making straight A’s. (2) He was horrified when he discovered that their AP English class was several chapters behind his previous high ranking school and they were not covering the material thoroughly. He began self-studying, using class assignments received from friends at the higher ranking school and joined an after school tutoring group attended by students at the high ranking school. By the time the AP tests were held, his lower ranking school had not completed sufficient work to cover all material while the high ranking school had finished their work and spent several weeks in review. His parents completed appropriate paperwork that year and came back to the higher ranking school for senior year. </p>
<p>My Latino son has blue eyes and blonde hair and his sister has brown hair and green eyes. It’s never been a topic of discussion among friends or classmates and nobody knows or cares what ethnicity they put on forms.</p>
<p>Very true. Colleges calculate their own GPA, many toss out non-core classes (band, art, whatever) and only calculate math-science-english-foreign lang-social science.</p>
<p>However, they most certainly look at how hard the courses are that the applicant is taking,and how hard the high school is. What will look bad is not taking opportunities to challenge yourself and not going to the magnet when it was possible to do so is a negative. </p>
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<p>Many applicants get rejected from Stanford, period. Like 95% of applicants are rejected. Valedictorians with great test scores get rejected. Don’t plan your D’s life around getting into Stanford. </p>
<p>BUT, the magnet school is far more likely to give her special opportunities - to do independent research or study abroad or find cool summer programs or join a math/debate team…those things that make applicants stand out from the rest are hard to find at schools that are struggling to get everyone out the door in 4 years. </p>
<p>As many people have said already, if she IS Latina, she should say so on her app. No one in college admissions is going to look at her and tell her she is an impostor.</p>